Tag Archives: Fighting Cancer

Cancer Care Tips

Tips on How to be the Best Cancer Caregiver You Can Be

Tips For Cancer Caregivers
Tips For Cancer Caregivers

At Issels® Immuno-Oncology Centers, providing immunotherapy to cancer patients is what we do every day. For caregivers of a partner diagnosed with cancer, it can sometimes become overwhelming knowing what to say, what to do, and when to do it. Understanding the role can help you be the best caregiver possible.

Role of a Caregiver

A caregiver should consider himself or herself as part of a team comprised of the patient, medical personnel, friends and family. As a caregiver, you’ll have many responsibilities from taking over the chores and duties of your partner to dispensing drugs.

You’ll have the responsibilities of:

  • paperwork
  • paying bills
  • scheduling
  • appointments
  • transportation
  • proper diet and sleep

Maintaining good verbal and listening techniques with your partner is vital as you are the person providing support and helping your partner make decisions. You must have good, open communication with other team members to keep everyone up-to-date.

Taking Care of the Caregiver

One of the most important things to remember is you must take care of yourself. A caregiver works long hours that can result in not eating, resting, sleeping or exercising properly. If you aren’t in top-notch form, you won’t be able to provide the best care for your partner.

Talk to your own physician prior to taking on the role of caregiver to find out about counseling services or support groups. If you have a job, talk to your human resource representative about amending your work schedule, taking a leave of absence, and if any assistance programs are available provided by the company.

If you have questions or need more information, contact our staff at Issels® for immediate assistance with cancer care.

Living with Cancer, Stress Management, Uncategorized

Cancer Patient Tip: Are You Sad or Clinically Depressed – How to Tell the Difference

Sad or Depressed?
Sad or Depressed?

Issels® Center for Immuno-Oncology provides state-of-the-art techniques to support and encourage a patient’s immune system to defend against cancer cells. Often times, even though treatment is progressing, cancer patients may experience a feeling of sadness.

The question is if the patient is having random moments of sadness or is clinically depressed. Knowing the difference is important.

Random Moments of Sadness

When you’re feeling sad, it can be for any number of reasons from worry about a health condition to stress of paying medical bills. Being sad doesn’t encompass your feelings for the majority of the time. You’re sad; you work through the issue, find a resolution, talk with friends or family, and continue your normal daily routine. Depression is the exact opposite and a much more serious condition.

Clinical Depression

Studies show that between 15-25 percent of the people who’ve been diagnosed as having cancer are candidates for depression. Some of the signs of depression may seem like sadness but there are differences.

  • Depression is long-term unhappiness
  • Experience excessive tiredness
  • Lack of interest in hobbies and activities
  • Eating routine changes
  • Restless and nervous feelings
  • An obvious change in sleeping habits
  • Lack of concentration
  • Significant change in mental and physical reactions
  • Feeling as if you no longer matter
  • Continued thoughts of the possibility of death
  • Thoughts of suicide

Anti-depressants, exercise, counseling, established routines, and psychotherapy are all ways to deal with depression. If you suffer from any of the listed symptoms, contact your physician to determine a plan of action.

If you need information about the services available at Issels® Center for Immuno-Oncology, contact us by phone or use the online form to submit your request.

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, News

What is Chronic or Controlled Cancer?

The Difference Between Cancers
The Difference Between Cancers

Many people view cancer as an all or nothing condition. They think that having cancer is a death sentence and successful treatment of cancer means it is completely eradicated from the body. At Issels® Center for Immuno-Oncology, we understand that each cancer patient is unique and personalized treatment protocols are the best approach. For some people, cancer is a chronic condition like diabetes or heart disease. Though the cancer may not ever go away completely, it can be controlled with treatment.

Chronic or controlled cancer

According to the American Cancer Society, a cancer that can be controlled through treatment, but does not disappear completely, is classified as controlled. Many ovarian cancers, types of leukemia, and a few types of lymphoma are controlled with treatment. These cancers continue to exist but not grow or spread to other organs. Treatment may be done as maintenance or only when the cancer starts growing.

Partial and full remission

For a cancer to be classified as in remission, the decrease in size must last for a minimum of one month. Cancer in remission is not eliminated or considered cured. When treatment results in tumor no longer being visible on a scan, it is called a complete remission or complete response. A reduction in size of at least 50 percent is called a partial response or partial remission.

Treating chronic cancer

While some cancers require ongoing maintenance treatments, some types can be kept under control through chemo when it begins to grow. Some cancers will become resistant to chemo and require other treatment options. Call Issels® today to find out more about our non-toxic immunotherapy protocols.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, News

Legislation Would Improve Care for Cancer Patients through Palliative Care Research

Cancer Research
Cancer Research

Cancer patients receiving the best medical care can still be left fending for themselves in coping with pain, stress and other auxiliary effects of treatment. A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress this past July aims to ease their burden by making palliative care more widely available.

This specialized form of care is centered on improving quality of life for patients dealing with cancer or other life-threatening diseases by helping them manage chronic symptoms associated with their illness and its treatment. Palliative care also reduces overall stress by allowing patients to be proactively involved with their healthcare team in determining the course of treatment and setting goals.

Public opinion research discovered that 70 percent of Americans are not even aware of palliative care. The Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act, introduced by New York Representatives Eliot Engel and Tom Reed, aims to reduce that statistic.

The bill provides for expanded federal research into palliative care along with corresponding training for allied health care professionals. It also calls for the establishment of a nationwide awareness campaign centered on educating the public about palliative care and its benefits for patients and their families.

Palliative care can be initiated for patients of any age at any stage of their illness. According to research supported by the American Cancer Society, palliative care reduces the amount of time patients spend in intensive care while allowing them to experience greater quality of life.

The personalized therapies you receive at our Issels® immuno-oncology centers include compassionate physician treatment that extends to your aftercare. Contact us for more information.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Living with Cancer

Just Diagnosed with Cancer? Know More about Why You Have Cancer

Tackling The Side Effects
Cancer Diagnosis

Everyone understands that cancer is a disease, but many people really know nothing more about it than that. If you have recently been diagnosed, the how’s and why’s behind cancer become concerns that move to the forefront of your mind. Here are answers to some of the more common questions that arise with cancer patients. 

Who gets cancer?

The short answer is: anyone. More than 1.5 million new cases are diagnosed each year. About 78 percent occur in people aged 55 or older, but cancer can strike people of any age, race and ethnicity.

How common is cancer?

In the United States, approximately half of all men and one-third of all women will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime. Thanks to advancements in screening and treatment, survival rates are much greater than in years past.

What are the causes of cancer?

The most common causes fall under a number of different categories. Certain lifestyle choices, such as smoking and spending time outside without sunscreen, are risk factors. Outside elements like radiation and chemicals can also increase risk. Roughly five to ten percent of cancers are linked to genetics.

Some people hold the misconception that injuries can cause cancer. The disease may be uncovered during treatment for an injury, but there is no causal relationship. Stress can affect your immune system, but to date there is no evidence that it’s a direct cause of cancer.

Issels® Immuno-Oncology Centers have pioneered the use of personalized therapies that are considered the most advanced of cancer treatments. Visit our website to read and view testimonials given by our patients.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Living with Cancer

Doorway in Blood Vessels Allows Breast Cancer to Spread Via the Blood

Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon
Breast Cancer Can Be Spread Through The Blood

What if you could literally close the door on metastasizing cancer? A recent U.S. study has discovered this doorway, and Issels® wants to let you in on the latest findings and how they might benefit your cancer treatment goals…

Escape artists
When three specific types of cells work together, cancer can escape into the blood stream. Their plan?

  • Cancer cells near blood vessels interact with macrophages, a type of white blood cell.
  • The macrophages release a protein, called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which increases the permeability or leakiness of endothelial cells in the blood vessel wall.
  • A doorway is temporarily created, through which cancer cells escape and spread into the bloodstream.

The right environment
Previously, what regulated the permeability of blood vessel walls at the escape site wasn’t clear. However thanks to the new imaging studies, the mechanism has been identified: macrophages at the tumor microenvironment of metastasis (TMEM), or TMEM macrophages.

Closing the door
While the VGEF protein produced by macrophages in the aforementioned escape process is already the target of existing cancer drugs, the recent study shows how this leakiness – cancer’s escape hatch – can be switched on and off by TMEM macrophages – the specific immune cells playing accomplice to the great escape.

A new frontier
The work performed on mice and building on previous findings from the Albert Einstein Cancer Center and Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care, could lead to new drugs for preventing the spread of cancer.

Are your ready to close the door on cancer treatment? Kick cancer out for good and throw away the key with the help of Issels® today!